Chapter 1089: Eerie Smiling Face

It wasn't just Elder Xun. In the hall, some practitioners of the Tianji technique with karmic intuition, such as the venerable Dongxu Patriarch and Grand Elder Situ Zhenren of Xuanji Valley, also sensed something. They all looked into the distance, their bodies cold, their pupils trembling.

An extremely large-scale "death omen," condensed with cold intent, terrified their hearts.

And at the core of the Blood Sacrifice Great Array...

Mister Tu, who was currently re-examining the Blood Sacrifice Great Array, also felt a sudden jolt in his heart. He detected an omen, as well as a bone-chilling cold intent that seemed to come from the Nine Netherworld.

Mister Tu's heart was shaken, then he frowned. The blood sacrifice was complete, the God Master was resurrected, and the great array was still operating. Although there were some minor mistakes, and the God Master was "taken away," as long as they found a way to bring the God Master back, everything would still develop according to the predetermined plan.

Mister Tu's face was extremely gloomy. "Where exactly did the problem occur, where..."

Suddenly, a karmic fluctuation caused Mo Hua's seemingly obedient but cunning gaze to flash through his mind. Mister Tu was stunned, his face suddenly changing.

"Mo Hua?!"

In the entire matter, the only unknown variable was that boy named Mo Hua, that host body for the honored fierce god parasite. But what could his cultivation do?

Mister Tu lowered his head, swept with his divine sense, and focused on the heart array eye. He carefully checked the blood sacrifice array hub on the remains of the giant beast again. In particular, the part of the array hub drawn by Mo Hua was verified repeatedly by Mister Tu.

"No problem..." Mister Tu let out a breath, but his eyebrows furrowed even tighter.

Mo Hua had indeed followed his instructions, not deviating at all, and not making a single mistake in engraving the Blood Sacrifice Array diagram on the remains of the great wild ancient beast. He had carefully checked these arrays before and found no trace of error. Now, he checked twice again but still found no problem.

Mister Tu's face was ashen. The uneasy premonition grew stronger and stronger. By all logic, absolutely no one within the entire Blood Sacrifice Great Array could tamper with it under his nose. If such a person existed, it could only be Mo Hua.

Mo Hua's divine sense, talent, comprehension, and even his divine favor made this feathered realm evil god great witch feel envious. But Mo Hua's cultivation was low, his spirit root poor, his physical body weak, a mere Foundation Building realm, with all his means not worth mentioning. His only notable ability was array. If he truly left some means, tampered with the heavenly machine karma, and influenced the overall situation of the evil path, it could only be through arrays.

But... what kind of array could this boy Mo Hua leave? What tricks could he play under the eyes of himself, a feathered cultivator and a Grade Four array master? Mister Tu didn't quite believe it.

But excluding all impossibilities, what remains, no matter how absurd it seems, is the truth.

Seeing Mister Tu's face turn gloomy with fear, Shangguan Wang frowned and said, "Mister Tu, what is this...?"

Among these feathered ones, Shangguan Wang had the heaviest personal desires and was the most obtuse in his perception of the heavenly machine. The feathered demon heads from Yin Corpse Valley and Magic Sword Gate, although their hearts were sinister and their killing intent heavy, as practitioners of the demonic path who constantly lived on the edge, even without learning the heavenly machine, were often highly suspicious. At this moment, they also perceived a trace of sinister fear. It was as if some terrible event was about to occur.

"Mister Tu," the feathered from Yin Corpse Valley said coldly, "What exactly happened?"

Mister Tu stared at the arrays drawn by Mo Hua, his gaze gloomy, and shook his head. "I... I'm not sure either."

This one sentence made the hearts of the three demonic path feathered cultivators present skip a beat. Someone had laid down means, and even the sinister, vicious, and experienced Mister Tu couldn't see through it? Everyone's faces fell.

And Mister Tu's expression was even uglier. He even felt as if there was a dripping sound ringing in his ears, as if something was counting down.

Countdown? Mister Tu was stunned. The situation before his eyes suddenly gave him an illusion. It seemed as if there was a "teacher" who had arranged an exam paper for him and set a time limit. He had to answer the questions on the exam paper within the time limit. Otherwise, this teacher would "tear up the paper" and invalidate all his scores, all his "great plans."

But the problem was... where was the exam paper? This cunning, slippery, shameless teacher, could he still hide the paper? If he didn't even give him the paper to look at, how could he take the exam?

Mister Tu's scalp felt numb. Time was still "ticking" away, every tick sounding like a drumbeat, knocking on Mister Tu's heart, making him feel as if he were in an exam scene, unable to answer the questions, or even find where the questions were, his heart burning with anxiety.

The feathered from Yin Corpse Valley saw the situation, frowned, and said, "Mister Tu, aren't you... being deceived?"

"No..." Mister Tu shook his head. Words, text, expressions, and behavior could deceive people, but intuition about karma often couldn't. His premonition should not be false.

However... deceived? The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was attentive. Mister Tu was suddenly shocked and realized something.

Mo Hua was using arrays to "deceive" him! In other words, the arrays he drew were fake?

Mister Tu immediately bent down again, pressed his fingers along the array lines, carefully traced the arrays drawn by Mo Hua stroke by stroke, line by line, and finally realized something.

"Fake! All fake!"

But... why would it be fake? Why?

Mister Tu's mind raced, and he suddenly remembered what he had said to Mo Hua: "A puzzle array is used to let the array master distinguish between the virtual and the real, the true and the false..." "The puzzle surface of a puzzle array is 'false', and the puzzle bottom is 'true'. By piercing through the appearance, you can see the essence of the array."

At that moment, it felt like a thunderclap exploded in his ears. Mister Tu's pupils suddenly shrank, and a coldness shot through his heart. "This boy... used the array I taught him to deceive me?!"

No... it's not just that...

Mister Tu frowned again, carefully looking at the arrays left by Mo Hua. Then he suddenly realized that what Mo Hua had done was far more complex than he had imagined. The so-called puzzle array, where the puzzle surface is false and the puzzle bottom is true. But between true and false, virtual and real are difficult to distinguish.

What Mo Hua did was to retain the "false" puzzle surface but, according to his own ideas, tamper with the "true" puzzle bottom, thereby drawing other arrays according to his own ideas while keeping the puzzle array's surface lines unchanged. He tampered with the puzzle question, the puzzle surface remained the same, but the puzzle bottom was vastly different.

Mister Tu's cheek twitched, and his heart found it hard to believe. Mo Hua being able to do this meant that his attainment in this ancient "puzzle array" far exceeded that of himself, a Grade Four array master. He could not only pierce the virtual and see through the true and false, but also tamper with the virtual and real himself, and define the true and false himself.

This boy... he's playing the pig to eat the tiger! From the beginning, he was deceiving himself!

Mister Tu was so angry that his eyes were red, and his heart ached. But it wasn't over yet...

Up to now, he only knew that Mo Hua had deliberately set up a "puzzle array" as a means, and he knew where Mo Hua had hidden the exam question. The next problem was, what exactly was the exam question he had hidden?

Mister Tu dipped his finger in blood, drew blood lines to isolate one of Mo Hua's puzzle arrays, and then urged the puzzle array lines with evil power. An obscure light shone. The puzzle array lines underwent a mysterious change, like the blooming of an epiphyllum, the puzzle surface was revealed, exposing a set of array lines hidden by Mo Hua. The array lines were obscure and ancient, flowing with a trace of destructive rhythm.

Mister Tu only took one look, and then his heart and lungs suddenly stopped.

Reverse Spirit! Reverse Spirit Absolute Array!

At that moment, he had the heart to tear Mo Hua, this "teacher" who had set this question, into a thousand pieces. A normal person, a normal array master, who would set this heaven-defying thing, the Reverse Spirit Absolute Array? And still... set it at the core of the great array?!

Mister Tu's hands were trembling. At the same time, he instantly understood a fact that shocked him:

The Reverse Spirit Absolute Array is a Grade Two, twenty-line array! Mo Hua, this boy, being able to set a Reverse Spirit Array explained that his divine sense had already reached twenty lines long ago. A Foundation Building cultivation, a core formed by twenty lines of divine thought, breaking the taboo of the great Dao, completely exceeding an entire major realm.

Mo Hua's brain, this person, is truly a heaven-defying thing! But Mister Tu no longer had time to be shocked. Time was passing. Mo Hua, this heaven-defying teacher, had given him a heaven-defying exam question and had even printed this exam question at the core of the Great Wild Blood Sacrifice Great Array. If he didn't solve this problem, all his efforts up to now would be in vain. A thousand years of painstaking effort would end in one morning.

Mister Tu suppressed the killing intent in his heart and began to think about how to crack the problem left by Mo Hua. First, the Reverse Spirit Array was intact, meaning it hadn't been triggered yet. Mo Hua definitely didn't want to be blown to death himself, so all the Reverse Spirit Arrays were only used by him as the "puzzle bottom," hidden under the "puzzle surface." As long as the Reverse Spirit Array was not triggered, there would be no collapse.

But Mister Tu knew that Mo Hua drawing these Reverse Spirit Arrays was definitely not for fun. He must have left some means to "ignite" them, thereby borrowing the Reverse Spirit Array to collapse the Blood Sacrifice Great Array. A Grade Two Reverse Spirit Array, by all reason, couldn't collapse a quasi-Grade Three Blood Sacrifice Great Array. But collapsing the core of the Blood Sacrifice Great Array was more than enough. And once the core was destroyed, the energy supply to the array eye would be cut off, and the entire Blood Sacrifice Great Array would temporarily be scrapped.

At that time, the forces of Qianxue would rush in. Without the cover of the Blood Sacrifice Great Array, all demonic path cultivators would find it hard to escape death. This was probably exactly Mo Hua's scheme. He wanted to "destroy the array and eliminate the witnesses."

The problem was, what means did Mo Hua leave to trigger the Reverse Spirit Array? Mister Tu wanted to try to directly destroy the Reverse Spirit Array lines, but his heart ached again, and he didn't dare to act rashly. Doing so would be equivalent to him "tearing up the paper" himself. If these Reverse Spirit Arrays used a "destructive" ignition method, once destroyed, they would immediately undergo a reverse change and explode, and it would be too late to regret.

Then what should he not do, just leave it alone? Anyway, the Blood Sacrifice Great Array is operating without hindrance now. As long as he leaves it alone, the Reverse Spirit Array won't start either?

Mister Tu frowned, realizing that this idea was too naive. This was a Reverse Spirit Absolute Array, engraved at the core of the great array, how could he dare to leave it alone? Moreover, Mo Hua's scheme was definitely not that simple. His "exam question" definitely had other conditions...

Mister Tu suddenly remembered the "dripping" sound in his intuition and immediately released his divine sense, trying his best to distinguish the "puzzle surface" set by Mo Hua. Finally, in the puzzle array node, he found a place with puzzle lines completely different from all other array lines.

Mister Tu cut off the puzzle lines, broke the puzzle surface, and what appeared before his eyes was actually a "sundial" shaped array, with twelve heavenly stems hours engraved on it. Mister Tu's heart was shocked. "Sundial Array!"

This is an extremely rare timing array. General array masters rarely learn it. But Mo Hua was special. He was the leader of the Qianxue array path, a genius of array law who had exhausted the foundation of the Taixu Gate's array path. Mister Tu was not surprised by what array he could use. If he could learn a Grade Two, twenty-line Reverse Spirit Absolute Array, it was even more unnecessary to mention some rare timing sundial array.

At the same time, Mister Tu's heart suddenly understood. Unraveling this layer of puzzle, he finally understood what this "teacher" Mo Hua had given him as an exam question: the sundial array was counting down. Once the timing ended, the Reverse Spirit Array would be triggered, and the Blood Sacrifice Great Array would collapse. His thousand years of painstaking efforts would be destroyed in one go.

And what he had to do was to find all ways to unravel the Reverse Spirit killing formation set by Mo Hua before the sundial array's timing ended, avoid the Reverse Spirit Array collapsing the array eye core, and destroying the Blood Sacrifice Great Array... This was the "gift" left by Mo Hua, this evil beast who deserved to be cut into a thousand pieces.

The sundial array was still turning. The pointer was turning circle after circle, grid after grid, approaching the final "deadline." Once the sundial reached the end, the exam would end, and the Reverse Spirit Array would explode. Unprecedented urgency pressed on Mister Tu's heart. His chest felt like a giant stone was pressed on it, heavy as a thousand jun.

Mister Tu took a long, deep breath. At this moment, no one could help him. He could only use all his strength to unravel the "exam question" left by Mo Hua.

"Reverse Spirit Array..." Mister Tu's eyebrows were covered with a layer of frost. Although he was a Grade Four array master and a consort of the evil god, he truly didn't know this Grade Two Reverse Spirit Absolute Array. Absolute Arrays, if one wanted to comprehend them, required both comprehension and opportunity; they couldn't be learned just by wanting to. Otherwise, they wouldn't be called "absolute arrays." Absolute array, generally understood as an "absolute grade" array, but at the same time also called an "absolute species" array. Because they are rare, hard to learn, hard to refine, and hard to pass down, most absolute arrays are "absolute species."

Mister Tu didn't know the Reverse Spirit Array, and naturally didn't know how to unravel it. Moreover, rushing to unravel it, if unraveled incorrectly, might not be as simple as just "deducting points."

What about cutting off the connection between the sundial array and the Reverse Spirit Array? This way, there would be no countdown, and at least in a short time, the Reverse Spirit Array wouldn't explode. It would be like directly cutting off the clock during an exam, and the "exam" wouldn't end.

Mister Tu tried once and found that it didn't work. This sundial array was somewhat strange, surrounded by puzzle arrays, with complex and utterly irregular lines. In a short time, Mister Tu couldn't figure out how this sundial array operated and how it maintained connection with the entire piece of Reverse Spirit Array.

Obviously, the shrewd and cunning Mo Hua wouldn't allow such a "cheat" loophole to exist. Mister Tu could only give up and consider how to directly solve the Reverse Spirit Array lines.

His lifetime array experience flashed through Mister Tu's mind one by one. And Mister Tu, not letting down his title as a Grade Four array master, quickly had an idea: since he couldn't unravel it, he could only split it and "isolate" it one by one, cutting off the connection between the Reverse Spirit Array lines and the Blood Sacrifice Great Array hub, thereby preventing the array hub from being detonated by the Reverse Spirit Array...

Mister Tu used his sharp fingers, dipped them in human blood, and engraved blood lines on the remains of the giant beast, utilizing the Great Wild Blood Array to isolate Mo Hua's puzzle arrays. Shangguan Wang and the other two saw Mister Tu drawing arrays with a grave expression, looked at each other, frowned, and remained silent. And time was tense, Mister Tu simply had no time to say anything to these three people.

The sundial was still turning, time passing by little by little. Mister Tu's fingers flew, laying down blood marks one by one, splitting and unraveling Mo Hua's arrays one by one... But as he unraveled more, he discovered that Mo Hua had set even more Reverse Spirit Arrays.

And these Reverse Spirit Arrays were extremely tightly bound to the center of the Blood Sacrifice Great Array. Almost every Reverse Spirit line corresponded to a node in the center of the great array. Once it exploded, it would borrow the great array hub to spread rapidly, maximizing the power of the Reverse Spirit collapse...

Not only that, all the Reverse Spirit Arrays were not isolated but, after careful consideration and precise calculation, connected back and forth, echoing each other, like sharp "bone-picking knives," dissecting the Blood Sacrifice Great Array hub from head to tail, from the inside out...

Mister Tu's fingers trembled, and he was suddenly shocked, realizing another fact that shocked him beyond measure: everything before his eyes was fundamentally not a means that a general array master could master... This was... only a main array master who had truly built a great array and whose understanding of the great array's core array hub structure was like the back of his hand, who could plan overall and control everything from a high vantage point, could possess such grand array law capacity, profound array law understanding, and deep array law attainment.

This meant...

Mister Tu's pupils shrank, his gaze terrified. Mo Hua, this sect disciple in the mere Foundation Building realm... could actually be a main array master? He had only lived for just over twenty years in total, and could actually... personally construct a cultivation great array?!

Mister Tu's heart was shocked, and he only felt that he had truly lived like a dog for over a thousand years. This child, Mo Hua, was truly heaven-defying to an absurd degree. Mister Tu didn't dare to believe it. But array law would not deceive people. What is, is; what is not, is not. The array law attainment before him was not a bit false.

Mister Tu instantly felt a huge mountain pressing on his back, the heavy pressure making him almost unable to lift his head. He realized that his opponent now was not a simple array law genius, not a general Grade Two high-rank array master, and not even just a simple leader of the Qianxue state's array path. But a heaven-defying monster whose divine sense had surpassed the limit and formed a core. A monster who could comprehend absolute arrays and was proficient in ancient puzzle arrays. A main array master, a genius in the absolute world, who at a young age could construct a great array.

This kind of creation could no longer be measured with the word "genius." Common array law geniuses couldn't even touch the edge of the threshold of these creations.

In his life, Mister Tu felt "fear" for the first time towards a Foundation Building cultivator. This monstrous talent made Mister Tu feel an indescribable huge pressure, making him subconsciously think, "This child absolutely cannot be left alive, otherwise my life will be ruined." If this monster was really allowed to grow up, if his cultivation soared and his array law progressed by leaps and bounds, who in this world could compete with him? Who was worthy of competing with him? Who could afford to compete?

Mister Tu bit his teeth, cold sweat flowing freely. And now, placed in front of Mister Tu was the "exam question" left by such a monster. But Mister Tu had no choice. He could only bear the huge pressure, bear the "fear" of Mo Hua's terrifying talent, use all his strength, maintain calmness, and unravel the problems left by Mo Hua one by one.

But there wasn't much time. Mo Hua, this insidious "teacher," was really too despicable and shameless. He hid the questions too deeply, leaving Mister Tu fundamentally insufficient time to "answer the questions."

The danger of the Reverse Spirit Array. The obscurity of the Puzzle Heaven Array. The complex structure of the Great Array. Mo Hua, the array path leader, the divine sense forming a core, the absolute array master, the array law monster, the great array main array master... this series of terrifying titles. Especially, the ever-turning, ticking, non-stop countdown sundial array... All made Mister Tu feel a sense of suffocation, as if drowning in the deep sea.

His pressure multiplied, and his mental defense was on the verge of collapse. And soon, the sundial array's countdown was about to end. The pointer, after turning circle after circle, grid after grid, was also approaching the final deadline.

Time was up. But there were still large amounts of Reverse Spirit Arrays that had not been processed. Mister Tu hadn't even answered a third of his "exam paper."

"Finished!"

Due to despair, anger, and shame, Mister Tu's mentality finally became unbalanced. Seeing the sundial about to count down to the end, he directly smashed the sundial array with a punch. The sundial array stopped. But nothing happened.

Mister Tu was stunned for a moment, his mentality gradually calming down, then he frowned. "Nothing?" This sundial array was fake?

But in the next instant, a sudden change occurred. The shattered circular sundial array began to change, the lines moving, forming a small, strange smiling face. This smiling face seemed to be mocking Mister Tu. And within the smiling face, a set of Reverse Spirit Array lines was also hidden.

Mister Tu's pupils widened, and he suddenly understood. This sundial array was fake! From the beginning, this sundial array was just turning idly! Its countdown had no meaning whatsoever! Even if it counted down to the end, it wouldn't explode. Because Mo Hua himself couldn't accurately grasp the time of his own withdrawal. If he miscalculated the time, or if something happened in the middle, he himself would be blown to death.

So, he wouldn't leave a countdown. This sundial array was just a "form." But, you absolutely couldn't touch this sundial array. Because this sundial array was actually just the guiding rope for the collapse of the Reverse Spirit Array. Once the sundial array was destroyed, it was equivalent to actively "igniting" the Reverse Spirit Array!

Cunning Mo Hua fundamentally didn't play by the rules. So, this "exam" fundamentally had no so-called "exam question." The real "exam question" was only this sundial array that messed with your mentality.

Don't touch it at all costs! Otherwise, it would "tear up the paper" and force a self-explosion! Mister Tu's face instantly turned pale, and his heart was icy cold.

He had been "played"... All of it was Mo Hua's scheme. Everything was within his strange calculation. From beginning to end, he had been severely tricked by this despicable and shameless little ghost who played with people's hearts...

On the sundial array, the strange little face was laughing at Mister Tu. Then a wisp of pitch-black, reverse-changing spiritual power emanated from the strange smiling face and seeped into the Blood Sacrifice Great Array.

The Great Wild Blood Sacrifice Great Array began to collapse...